7/31/13

I found these soft heathery charcoal shirts at the dollar store...
and consequently, bought all they had!
Then my boys got to pick whatever they wanted to go
on them in silver heat transfer vinyl.

This guy was specific!
He wanted a cute puppy and tough guy!
How fun is that?
We found an image we both agreed on...
and had the silhouette cameo cut out the vinyl in reverse.

Then covered it with a tea towel and ironed it!

Then removed the towel and ironed it some more, directly on the plastic.
Until it was secure.
Removed the plastic, let it cool and that tough guy couldn't be happier!

The elder and far more responsible son wanted a vintage nintendo controller on his.
We found an image and did the same process.
Just don't forget to reverse your image before letting your cutting device cut it out!
right click to save off for personal use!

Here's the cartoon network coloring book image I used.
I put the file into silhouette studios, selected the area,
then had it trace the outline. (right click save for personal use only)
I put freezer paper on my cutting mat and had my silhouette cameo cut it out for me!
You could do this with a hobby knife and a cutting mat.
Here's how it went down.
I took each piece off the silhouette mat one at a time and ironed it in place...
It was tedious getting all those little pieces ironed on where they should be...
And you can tell that not all the lines are lined up...but whatever!
Then I used Silhouette brand fabric paint.
It's a little pricey, but holds up nicely and feels soft.
I used a stipple brush and painted all the spaces black!
I remove all the freezer paper while the paint is still tacky.
And it looks awesome just like this!
But I took it a step further and colored in the shape,
just like a coloring book!

The orange shirt was hard to cover up with the white,
so I just shaded it!

Brand spankin' new and lovin' it!

Well, how does it hold up?
Here he is in all his Star Wars glory at Hollywood Studios in June...
9 months later (and probably worn once a week or more!)

It's faded and distressed looking...and AWESOME!
He got lots of compliments on his cool shirt!
I should make him another one because of how much he loves it!

7/26/13

they are a little out of reach...until NOW!
Say Hello to the DIY version--for CHEAP!
(These were made with stuff I had on hand...love hoarding!)
If you have to buy the supplies, they'll cost about $2-3 each.
(and that's mostly the chain...so round up some old necklace chains...
or use twine, yarn, string...whatever!)

We printed out the hello at 300% of what we
wanted the finished project to measure.
It shrinks almost 200%...keep that in mind.
So, the hello measured about 6 inches wide...
they finished at 2 1/4" wide.
Trace your word onto the shrink plastic on the rough side...
for the yellow hello, we traced it the same direction...
we reversed the word for the blue one.
This is all based on preference, they both look awesome!
On the blue one, we made little bumps on
the sides for hole punching too...
totally base yours off of preference and if your word has enough loops...
See the difference?
If I was doing this with some tweens,
I'd go with the easy route and do it the right direction.
Punch holes, if you need to.
Make sure they are bigger than just one hole punch, they shrink quite a bit!
Now color them!
Using markers or colored pencils.
Sharpies work GREAT too...you could do a silver or gold one...or neon!
I used copic markers and blended colors to look ombre.

This one in blues...
This one in yellows!
Remember to color on the rough side of the plastic.
If you are using recycled goods...maybe rough it
up slightly with some sand paper first.
Once they are colored, place them rough/colored side up
on a baking sheet.
Oven should be at 350*
Here's the uber fun and uber scary part!
It's so fun to watch the plastic melt...but scary...
I always worry that it wont work!
It will melt, and begin to curl up...then it will flatten back out.
After it flattened out, the words were stretched out a little weird...
so I used a tiny spatula and straightened out the letters again
(last picture of the sequence)
Watch it though, it only takes 2-3 minutes for the entire process.
Then remove from oven and let them cool, about 3 minutes.
Here's the good old size comparison to how big we started with them.
Now they are thick hard plastic! Just like those acrylic ones! yay!
Now to turn them into eye catching necklaces:
You'll need your chain, clasps (for a choker), and jump rings...
as well as your pliers.
My short necklace is 16 inches long.
I hooked the jump ring on one 7.5" chain, and the lobster clasp on the other.
Then used the other end to hook onto my hello with jump rings!
Easy!
For the yellow one, I got chain long enough to go around my
head and just used jump rings to hook into the h and the o!
Easier!
You can make a necklace display like this one too!
Do you ever write or say the same word over and over...
then it sounds and looks weird and you feel like you
spelled it wrong?...I'm feeling that with this hello.

These would be so darling as little stocking stuffers,
gifts for friends, grandkids...birthday party crafts for tweens and teens!
You could do LOL, YOLO or some inside joke phrase word!